Keeper of the Cloud
by 06KoolKid101
Summary: Join Max and his friends on an unblievable adventure through the clouds. On his adventure meet "The bad guys" and the "Good guys." Sci-fi set in the future. A war in the clouds.
1. Notice

Thank you, Max Miller for dreaming up this story, quite literally, and letting me write it.

I also want to thank my entire class, as they have put up with me writing about them.

Everyone in the story is very OOC, especially Max (His brain is a confusing place.), and all relationships are entirely made up. Though I do think that Holland and Max could be a thing.

Oh and BTW, I just followed Max's dream, so I didn't pair anyone because I liked them, or thought they liked each other. It was all from Max's dream.

So um… sorry it's so short, *whispers* It's my first story out to the public!

And thanks to my family for putting up with endless hours of writing, even in bed.

I would like to thank Max again because he edited, and I could not have done this without him.

This was also originally a dream so I changed a _lot_ of stuff, so it was more a story. Plus I added in one or two relationships *cough* Hax… *cough* and, yeah…

Please read thoroughly and feel free to mark any mistakes and send it to my editors:

Max Miller, CeCe Fern

Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 1

As I stood on an artificial cloud and watched the earth explode, I wondered what had happened. I was standing there with only five other people in the entire world. We had survived to worst war in history, but in the process we had lost all of our family, half of our classmates, and all but five of our friends. We had eliminated the all the "Bad Guys" or the Isdoni. Though they had achieved their goal, world domination, even if it meant destroying the world with them. I debated whether it was worth it to win the war, if it meant the end of the world. If we had accepted the rule of the Isdoni them we would have survived, with the earth. Though they may have killed us anyways.


	3. Chapter 2

It was twelve-thirty. Almost time for lunch. We were in school, all 15 of us. During work time I was called to the office, making me sweat. I had thought I was in trouble, but it really turned out to be something else entirely.

As I entered the office I was greeted by the assistant principal.

"You are needed this way, Max." she whispered quietly.

"Okay, thank you." I answer.

We walk into a large room I did not know existed, and someone I did not know, dressed in smart military wear entered the room opposite to us. He was loudly arguing with another person walking alongside him. The man he was arguing with was wearing a white lab coat, and did not seem to notice our presence. The military dude walked across the room, and stopped right in front of me.

"Hello, I am Sargent Fernandad. Nice to finally meet you, Max. So let's get right to the point. I have elected you to lead your class to an artificial cloud. Now before you ask questions I wanted to tell you; this will be no normal field trip, it will be war." Said Sargent Fernandad.

"But-"

He cuts me off, "I hope for the sake of mankind you agree. The enemy, the Isdoni, have been secretly helping some of the most terrible people in history, Hitler, Attila the Hun, and most importantly, death himself. We, the US government, have picked up a new energy in the outer reaches of the atmosphere. This was later identified as nuclear dark matter missiles, capable of destroying the entire world."

I interrupt, "Why me, why us? Why eleven years old?"

He answers, "Because the rocket you will be using could ruin the metabolism of someone over the age of 12. You have been chosen as the most versatile class, the most expendable class, in your year."

"Rocket!?"

"Yes."

"I accept?" I ask tentatively, wondering if I just agreed to kill myself.

"Thank you, the future of earth will remember you." He says, not realizing there may be no earth to return to. "Your classmates will be here shortly, they have already agreed."

"Roy, please escort the young gentleman to the garage." He says. I realize he is talking to the guy with the lab coat. I had completely forgot about him.

He takes me by the hand, and pulls me toward the door they had entered from. He does this without speaking. I am led to a room even bigger than the other, via a descending staircase. As we enter the room Roy jerks me back, into the entrance. I decide I don't like this guy.

He reaches over to the wall, to a button I hadn't noticed. As he pushes it sirens sound, and red lights flash. A computerize voice says:

"Ten"

"Nine"

"Eight"

"Seven"

"Six"

"Five"

"Four"

"Three"

"Two"

"One"

Gates close all the entrances off and the floor spits in half. It starts pulling in, opening a giant cavern in the ground. Soon the floor is completely gone, leaving a gaping hole. We then hear a grinding sound. It gets louder and I can soon see the glint of metal though the darkness of the pit. A giant spaceship is lifting out of the ground! Soon the room looks the same, except for the massive spaceship.


	4. Chapter 3

I was stunned at the enormity of it all. The spaceship. The rooms. Everything. People started rushing out of the openings, running to the spaceship. They seemed to be checking every square inch of the ship, making sure it was ready. But for what?

Soon I was joined by my classmates, and they seemed to be as disoriented as me. I started to ask "Why are-"but Roy cuts me off.

"I understand your worry. The colonel should be coming along soon."

Before he could finish his sentence the colonel stepped in. He saluted to Roy, then started to explain, "This will be your ride, the TRA 330, and it is driven an ion fission drive. This is the drive that allows you to pilot freely around the atmosphere, it would also slowly kill anyone over the age of 12. TRA was assembled by our topmost engineers, making it the top of its class. This will give you the upper hand."

"Thank you." I reply.

He says "Jeremiah has been chosen to be the pilot, as he is the best with angles, math, and generally driving." He then yells "Jeremiah step forward! You have been chosen to pilot this ship for your crew, do you think you can handle it?"

"Yes." He agrees.

"Max." He says "You are the chosen leader. The rest of the crews positions are up to you."

I start immediately. "CeCe, lead battle strategist. Jeremiah, you will also be the crew's mechanic, as you will know the ship the best. Holland, you will be the manager of weaponry and rations. Malik, you will be the head soldier, leading us to battle." The rest of you will get jobs later.

Everyone immediately starts complaining or exclaiming. I shout "If you have a problem with your position, see me personally."

The colonel says we will go home to our houses and act like there is nothing different about today. We will then come back to school. Immediately after we will be taken back to this room. Then our mission will commence.

We all go home.

The rest of the day is a blur. My parents may have thought I was acting a little evasive, but they probably just thought I was in trouble at school.

The next day we were all brought back to the underground lab. The colonel explained the weapons, and our mission.

"Your mission is to eliminate all the Isdoni. This must be done before they gain world domination through threats with the matter missiles, as we like to call them." He says "I hope for the sake of the world you can succeed."

As we board the ship I notice how it looks so unlike anything I've ever seen. More like a giant ball than a spaceship. Apart from the fact that that it had massive thrusters stuck to the bottom of it.

The inside is more spectacular than I imagined, with tiny little details making it look more natural and beautiful. We entered to the right side of the main deck. Fernandad explained that this is where Jeremiah would be piloting. I stood there, awestruck, taking in the bluish walls, the raised pilot's seat. The colonel explained that almost everything was automated with the latest tech, even some top secret military stuff.

Jeremiah walked over to the pilot's seat and started to ask "How am I going-"The chair quickly lowered, making it possible to him to get into the seven foot tall chair.

To me entering the TRA 330 felt like coming home. As Jeremiah took the pilot's seat, I took the commanding seat directly in front of the raised pilot's seat. The other students took the surrounding chairs, making a semi-circle in front of the massive viewing window.


	5. Chapter 4

As we climbed into the seats around the cockpit we heard the door slam shut. We were soon ready to lift off, but realized that Jeremiah had not been taught the controls. Jeremiah exclaimed that he couldn't fly the most advanced spaceship in human history with knowing how to work it! Then we realized there were no buttons, controls, or a steering wheel.

The colonel stepped out of the shadows, "You finally realized. I was wondering how long it would take." He smiled as he said "If you examine the pilot seat you will notice to pads. These are for your hands. Certain movements will cause the ship to do certain things. As I teach our pilot here, you others can examine the ship more thoroughly. Boys on the right, girls on the left."

As he was teaching Jeremiah the ship's controls we found what he meant by "Boys on the right, girls on the left." On the right was a room filled with bunk beds decorated in a steampunk way. The room was themed blue, with a silver accent. On the left was the girls living quarters, purple with flowered beds.

Soon Fernandad was done with Jeremiah, and he gathered us in the main room.

"I want to show you one more feature of the ship, as I will not join you on your journey, I will need to exit. But not though the door. I will use the emergency exit."

He sat in an empty chair, the extra, and flipped back a black case, and pressed a button. The chair instantly shot through the floor. The ground then closed, as if nothing had happened.

We prepared for liftoff with the procedure suggested by the colonel. As were readying for liftoff I noticed my legs were shaking. I was nervous, as were the others. As Jeremiah fired up the rocket I noticed looks pass between Ian and Juliet. They seemed to be smiling. I let it go for the meantime, and gave out orders.

As Jeremiah made hand movements on the pad I heard him yell "Sequence five, startup seven!"

As he shouted these calculations the rocket's engine started. It was quieter than expected. It seemed more like a small humming sound than a multi-billion dollar rocket engine. I looked out the window to see the wall slowly falling.

"It's an anti-gravity drive, making it so I can pilot at whatever speed I want." He explained. "I'm going to take us out slow, so you'll have about 2 hours to converse and wander."

As we broke out of from building, we gained speed, until we were soaring at a speed of two hundred miles per hour. Out of the window we could see the clouds, zooming past as Jeremiah expertly piloted past.

We took the chance to converse, mostly battle strategies, worries, and just plain thoughts. I wandered over to Holland, and talked battle and war with her for about an hour, mostly how to survive this crazy expedition. Holland and I had never really been close. Though during that conversation I noticed us becoming more welcoming of each other's opinions, maybe this was the start of a friendship.

I had started to wander around talking to random people, and wondering how many would come back alive. Though Jeremiah was carefully piloting, he was engaged in conversation with CeCe. They seemed to be talking about planning, though they were laughing. I didn't think it was a funny subject.

"Were they- No…?"

I started talking to Holland again, but she seemed nervous around me. I started to walk away but she gently put her hand on my shoulder. I turn around to see her blushing.

"I'm sorry."

"No, its fine." I actually kind of liked it.

"So… How are we going to do this?"

"Do what?"

It was an awkward conversation, but Holland seemed to be warming up to me, less nervous.

CeCe soon departed from the conversation with Jeremiah. I went over to talk to him.

"Hey." He says

"Hi. Were you and CeCe-"

"Shut up."

His eyes stay fixated at the window, as he keeps talking. I find it kind of unsettling.

"Well, I hope we get there soon, I am kind of tired of this rocket."

"Point five–no–four hours."

"Okay–wait what? How can you possibly be that accurate?"

"My glasses project calculations, times, graphs, and commands from earth into my eyes."

As I look at him I see no glasses. Then right when I'm about to dismiss the thought I catch a glint of glass on his face. Paper thin, super clear glasses.

As I keep talking to Jeremiah he seems to get more distracted by the window, and his piloting. I find his presence kind of foreboding, commanding. For the first time I start to doubt myself as the leader of this mission. Jeremiah would be just as good a commander.

As I leave the conversation I see Jeremiahs hands tighten. I see the clouds clear and view our new home for the first time.

It was a bigger artificial cloud, but flat and empty. It was covered in a thin layer of grass, with absolutely nothing on it, except a few trees. We all were stunned at the sight of an artificial cloud. The thing that had been in the newspapers as a military development. There had been artist's imitations. They looked nothing like the real thing.

It looked more like a cloud in the newspaper. Floating earth in reality.

"So this is our new home." I breathed.

A simple "wow" was the response of most of our crew.

Jeremiah is in a much lighter mood. "This is your captain speaking, please buckle up, and prepare for some turbulence. I'm taking her down."

This simple statement seems to lift the gloom off of everyone's shoulders. My classmates take seats. I sit in the commanding chair, next to Jeremiah's piloting chair. Cece takes the other side.

As Jeremiah lands the ship the realization sets in. This could be our home for who knows how long. It could be our grave. I get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I step out onto the grass.


	6. Chapter 5

Three days had passed, and our stay had been thoroughly boring. We had been setting up gear, orbiting at 17,000 miles per hour. I was starting to wonder whether we would have to go find the Isdoni with our nifty little, or big, rocket.

The first day we had found the living quarters. Underground. Turns out that earth had slipped trackers into our clothes. They monitored vital functions, tracked locations, and acted like a key to the cloud.

Our living quarters were almost identical to the TRA's. The entire cloud had been hollowed out, leaving room for the most advanced military base on earth, or should I say, above earth?

It consisted of a storage room the size of our school gym, weapon priming zone, or the missile zone, as we like to call it, an actual gym (the size of a gym), a docking bay, personal aircraft storage, a kitchen and dining room, and a living room.

Juliet and Ian were appointed chefs, and definitely enjoyed each other's company as they cooked. CeCe was a self-appointed engineer's assistant, though I think she just liked spending time with Jeremiah. He didn't seem to mind, he looked to be enjoying it too.

On the second day we decided to appoint guards. One on each side of the cloud. They took three hour shifts, making it impossible to sneak up on the cloud.

The third day was more of the same stuff.

The fourth day was exiting. We got our first message from earth. It was bad news, the first sign of war.

 _Isdoni approaching, will arrive in 1-4 hours._

We posted guards, this time two on each side. Every hour we would switch with the other half of the group.

While the guards were, um… guarding? The other half would lie and wait. Around hour 2 the Isdoni came into view.

I don't know what we were expecting, but not this.

An artificial cloud. The Isdoni had an artificial cloud.

 _Not good._

Me and Michael were the guards on that side, and had no time to dodge the spray of bullets sent our way. The ground was ripped to shreds. The edge we were standing on was sheared off.

 _Dang._

They shot another round of bullets, this time straight at us. I managed to miraculously dodge all the bullets. Michael wasn't so lucky, one of the stray bullets found his leg. He was knocked of balance, toppling over the edge.

 _Whoa…_

They were ruthless. I had no time to lament Michael's death. I was forced to retreat behind a small rock that happened to be near me.

I heard a small hum.

 _Rocket_ was my first thought.

I was right. A small personal craft dodged nimbly to the side as a bullet whizzed past its hull. It was closing the distance between our clouds, quickly.

A small stream of bullets shot out from under our cloud. _Jeremiah and CeCe, YES!_ I mentally yelled as I realized what had happened. Jeremiah had gotten one of the turrets to work, fighting back.

The projectiles found their mark, shredding its hull. The ship went down sending a spray of sparks as it went.

We were all shocked.

We had no time to be shocked, as more ships were coming our way. We were forced to return fire. I was unable to.

 _Power,_

 _But death,_

 _Safety,_

 _But death,_

 _Success,_

 _But death,_

 _Max, just pull the trigger!_

 _But death_

I was paralyzed at the thought of killing a human being. How could I deprive someone of life, he had every right to live. Didn't he? Then I remembered that his mission was to kill every single one of my friends.

I pulled the trigger.

I watched as the bullet zoomed out of the gun, whizzing by the enemy's rocket.

 _That wasn't so bad._

I pulled the trigger again, remembering Michael, remembering his death, remembering his life, remembering my friend.

This time the bullet struck home, blowing up the rocket killing the inhabitants. I was stunned at what I had just done.

 _Death_

I had caused the loss of life, I had killed a man, I had murdered in cold blood. What had I done? I was a monstrosity, I was a killer.

Then I remembered that it was not cold blood, my life and friends' lives were on the line.

I pulled the trigger again, destroying anther ship.

My sanity was lost.

Holland dragged my back to the present, gently putting her hand on my shoulder.

My heart fluttered… _What?!_

"Hi, sorry to scare you. I came to check on you." Holland said quietly, "We were scared you… Well I for one am glad to see that you're okay." Holland quickly added, "Where is Michael?"

My face fell. "Oh, um…"

Holland whispered "Oh, sorry to interrupt."

"No! I mean, its fine. Thanks." My face reddening

Holland stayed with me the rest of the battle, pulling me out of my breakdowns.

 _This is awesome!_ Said a voice in my head.

 _No it's really not, I'm killing innocent people._ I said back, which triggered another breakdown.


	7. Chapter 6

The battle raged on, the Isdoni sending hundreds of ships before changing its strategy. Soon hundreds of tiny personal crafts charged out into open space, closing the distance rapidly. We fired as much as possible, taking down a grand total of twenty-three ships.

They had soon overwhelmed us, taking our island. We were forced to retreat to the storage room. There we regrouped.

"Who have we lost?" I ask.

"Brooks died defending Ian's unconscious body." Jaliyah says glaring at Ian.

Ian shrinks down into his chair. Jaliyah does that to people.

"We lost Ella to a starship." Jeremiah says

"I could have saved her." He adds quietly.

"It's okay. You did fine." Holland says as CeCe frowns.

I frown to.

"And we lost Michael to a starship too." I finish.

We all bow our heads in a moment of appreciation. We then hear a loud boom echoing through the room.

"Jeremiah, how long do we have before they breach the hatch?" I yell.

"We have about ten minutes, maybe less. They resorted to a last case scenario: dynamite."

Holland starts yelling about weapons. "Does everyone have a saber, pistol, and an EMP gun?"  
"Yes." We all chorus.

Jeremiah jumps up a pile of stuff and whips out a soldering iron. "This will have to do." He jumps up to a wall and starts spraying it with the fire. He cuts a circle very slowly, exposing a view of the hallway.

"Great!" Malik says. "I want Cassie and Daniel up there, using the pistols."

"Ian and Juliet, you try to find some extra weapons." I yell.

Ian walks off holding Juliet's hand. Wait, what?! I glance back to see their hands separated as they turn the corner.

 _Do they… Like each other? What?_

"I'll go help them." I find myself saying.

 _Why am I so freaking nosy?!_

I walk down the walkway. I turn the corner to see Ian and Juliet kissing. _Kissing!_

 _What the?!_

Ian glances over his shoulder and sees me. They quickly pull apart. Juliet blushes fiercely. Ian glares at me.

He growls, "What do you want?" he then adds "You didn't see that." While towering over me. Did I add that I am short?

I awkwardly walk away, but glance back to see Juliet reach for Ian's hand, and whisper something in his ear. I turn the corner.

As I walk back to the group Jaliyah notices me, "What's wrong?" She asks as she notices my frown.

"Nothing, they didn't want help." I blush at the lie.

"Okay…"

We hear a loud boom and dust rains down on us. The raiders have gotten in!

"Everybody, quick get in a pincer position around the door." Malik yells.

Ian and Juliet come around the corner lugging a hunk of metal behind them. Ian props it up, while glaring at me, and presses a button.

"That just activated trackers in the kitchen. They should be able to hack in those. It put a virtual smokescreen around ours, buying us about 20 minutes."

"Good, that gives us time to prepare. Oh, and Ian, can you buy us more time?" I ask.

"No, this is the best I can do." He said. "Sorry."

"Okay, well this is good." Malik answers for me.

"Oh, and, um… me and Juliet have something to tell everyone." Ian announces. "We understand that this a team effort, and we're not supposed to hide secrets, and, um…"

"Well, we're kind of dating." Juliet answers for him.

"Yeah."

"And, um…" Ian stops as he notices everyone staring at him. He starts getting angry. "What? You need us to prove it? Well okay!" He says in an infuriated tone.

He pulls Juliet in for a kiss. Almost everyone gasps, and Ian notices, pulling Juliet in closer. She seems kind of surprised, even stunned, but then relaxes and sinks into the kiss. Ian wraps his arm around her waist, not wanting to pull away. Juliet was the one to pull away, stunned, but still happy.

Ian interlocks his fingers with Juliet's, and lets his arm drop from around her waist. "Happy now?" He says, trying to sound angry, but not being able to.

We all stood stock still.

"Okay then. Good."

Suddenly Juliet kisses Ian. His eyes go wide. I have a feeling this was the first time she kissed him. She pulls him in, resting a hand around his neck.

Ian relaxes. He then cradles her head in his hands, pulling her in even closer. He then pulls away, and whispers something in her ear.

She says out loud "I love you to."

One of the other girls says, "Aww…" Which breaks the romantic scene.

Ian glares into the audience, while Juliet blushes.

We hear another boom, this time much closer.  
"Everyone, enough making out in public, get to your positions." Malik yells.

This time Ian blushes. I know him, he will always be there for her, and I have a feeling she will be to.


	8. Chapter 7

Another boom echoed around the storage room. They were close.

"Jeremiah! CeCe! Rig a sentry gun to aim at the door." Malik yelled, "I want the rest of you in a pincer movement on either side of the door."

We all move into place, drawing different weapons. CeCe walks off, dragging Jeremiah behind her.

We hear another boom, this time much closer.

We hear banging in the hallway. Silence. More silence. A deafening boom. It echoes around the cavernous space. The door immediately cracks, then falls in. We hear shouting. The doorway stays empty, both sides tense.

Suddenly the entire army of the Isdoni pours through.

I faintly hear Malik yell "Fire!" as hundreds of guns go off. We fire back, instantly killing the front rows of Isdoni.

Through the haze I see two figures lugging a huge piece of metal towards the battle. They prop it up right, and fiddle with it until a stream of bullets flies through the air, instantly killing multiple Isdoni. One of the figures, which I recognize as Jeremiah collapses in the realization of what he just did.

I work my way through the screams, shout, and general chaos to get to CeCe. I get there to find an unconscious Jeremiah, and a crying CeCe.

"He's not dead." I yell through the fray.

CeCe just sits there crying uncontrollably. "What did I do?"

"Nothing." Jeremiah answers as he wakes up.

"I, I thought, I thought…" CeCe sobs

"It's okay." Jeremiah says in his usual sarcastic tone, "I didn't realize you cared so deeply about me."

"Shut up. Just the thought of someone in my class, even you, dying, was enough to toss me over the edge."

"What do you want?" Jeremiah asks sarcastically.

"I, I just wanted to check on you." I say.

"Okay. Well, give me a hand CeCe." Jeremiah sighs.

CeCe intertwines their fingers and pulls him up, hugging him. They go back to work on the machine, firing an endless stream of bullets.

 _Okay… why did she hug him?_

As I start to walk away I hear a faint sound, footsteps. I turn around to see an Isdoni stalking towards CeCe and Jeremiah. I lung to intercept him. He turns toward me, and we circle each other. I draw my energy saber, thrusting at him, he faints left, but I anticipate the move. I raise my sword and;

 _Strike for Michael_

 _Strike for Ella_

 _Strike for Brooks_

 _Strike for Earth_

 _Strike for me_

 _Strike for my friends_

 _Strike for my family_

 _Strike for peace!_

I look down to see a body. It all rushes back to me. The Isdoni, I killed one of the Isdoni. I know I should be proud, but I'm not. How do I know that we're the good guys? We're killing people, murdering, destroying, annihilating, exterminating. But the voice in my head came to my rescue;

 _But they're the ones bent on destroying the world._

Soon we're overwhelmed. The Isdoni have captured us, the unthinkable.

Why didn't they kill us? Why?

Maybe we hold valuable information, maybe they want to question us.

The rest of the time passes like a blur, probably minor sedatives.

As we board a ship, I notice looks pass between Malik and Jaliyah. I wonder what they could mean, not another relationship. No, Malik and Jaliyah were definitely not a thing. There was something else going on between those two. I intended to find out.

As soon as we board the ship Jaliyah yells something I cannot make out.  
We all hear a soft thunk and turn to see Jaliyah's body slumped against the seat. A knife protruding out of her back.

 _Holy crap!_

 _Okay, these guys are ruthless._

 _Dang._

The cabin air soon goes a milky white, a weird smoke. A sedative.


	9. Chapter 8

I awoke in a room. With all my classmates. I knew this wasn't school, because the room looked nothing like the classrooms. Oh, and Ian and Juliet were kissing. Our school has this thing about PDA, all the teachers go crazy about kissing, hugging, and generally any physical contact.

 _Dang, they kiss a_ lot _._

It all came rushing back to me. The spaceship. The mile long island floating in the sky. The battle. The capture.

We were now in the enemy base, I think.

We were each tied to a separate chair, in rows of two. I was next to Holland. We all conversed quietly until everyone had woken up. All ten of us. Wait, ten? Shouldn't that be eleven?

CeCe,

Jeremiah,

Holland,

Cassie,

Malik,

Joe,

Juliet,

Ian,

Daniel,

And no Clara.

"Where is Clara?" I ask quietly.

Everyone looks at me, except Jeremiah and CeCe, they're too busy talking, immersed in a deep conversation. Mostly laughing.

"Well… she was caught in the crossfire during the battle." Daniel murmurs. "She's dead."

"Oh. Well, let's focus on getting out of here." I say, changing the subject.

We all go back to talking. I turn towards Holland and catch her looking at me. Staring.

"So, what's up?" I ask.

"The sky."

I catch her eye and we burst out laughing.

"Okay, how do you propose we get out of here?"

"You're the commander." She answers. "No one else would have done a better job." She adds quietly.

I blush as my eyes light up.

 _She complemented me!_

"Oh, well thanks." I say, while scratching the back of my head.

She also blushes.

"Well, so back to the question. Now I'm asking you, what do we do?" Holland asks.

Not wanting to look confused, especially in front of Holland, I say "Well, I think that we could handle whatever they throw at us."

"I have one more question." Holland adds, "Well, um… I'm not sure how to put this. But um,"

 _She seems nervous. Could she be…no._

"Well, I like you." Holland says, blushing madly, "Do you, um, like me?"

 _YES!_

"Yes," I whisper.

Holland smiles, making me smile.

I lean in and kiss her.

I never imagined in a million years what it would be like. Now I know why Jeremiah does it so much. Holland seemed surprised at first, but then sinks into the kiss. We hold on to each other for so long, not wanting to pull away, that my lungs felt like bursting.

When we did finally pull away I notice the other eight people in the room staring at us.

"Well, um, I can explain." I explain quickly, "Me and Holland-"

"No need to explain, I know what it's like." Says Ian, cutting me off.

Juliet smiles, like she is remembering something.

I send him a grateful look.

Malik sighs, then says in a sarcastic tone, "Now we have two couples on our hands, don't let me catch you kissing at an unauthorized time."

Making four of us blush.

Ian quickly pulls Juliet in for a kiss, making Malik blush. Ian's defiant that way.

Soon four men enter the building. We hear a low creak and someone marches though the doorway.

"It's been fun watching you guys make out and all, but let's get down to business." Said the man in a gruff voice, exactly matching his bulky, massive frame. He looked to be about 6' 7".

"You are under the most advanced military base in all of human history, a huge complex for our hundreds of patrons. This includes a prison, the most advanced, most secure prison ever." He says, "This is where you will be making your stay. You will be staying in rooms of two each."

We all are stunned at what he just said. We would not be killed. We would not die. We all were so excited, though still depressed.

"I am also in a good mood today, so I will give the couples rooms together." He adds, "Oh, yeah that's a two way mirror, and the room is heavily bugged. Watch your step."

 _Dang, all our plans ruined._

3"I will be leading you to your cells. Now do be careful to not get yourself killed. You hold valuable information."

Somebody comes in the door, and gestures towards the boss.

"Sorry, I have to go, I'll be back in, maybe an hour. And you'll be watched." He says gesturing towards the mirror.

He leaves the room, leaving us by ourselves. Kind of.

I notice he left his pistol on his desk, with the silencer on. Jeremiah notices this to and lunges at it.

How did he get his bonds off?

He quickly shoots two shots towards the mirror, shattering the glass, and shredding the person on the other side.

"Okay, these guys were obviously never boy-scouts. They can't tie a knot worth beans." He adds, "Who wants to go first?"

We all looks at him dumbfounded, not realizing what he meant.

He sighs, "Okay CeCe, you'll go first." He moves over to her side, and she tenses up. I can't blame her.

Jeremiah quickly fires a shot, which cuts through the rope like putty.

Jeremiah moves through the rows, destroying everyone else's bonds, freeing everyone.

"Okay, now good news or bad news?" Jeremiah asks.

"Good."

"Well, um we have a weapon and we're all freed, but the bad news is, we only have 3 shots left." He replies. He then tosses the gun to me, and I catch it. "You're the leader. Now lead."

Determined to prove to him that I am a good leader I step out though the door, and look around. One guy walking toward us. I fire at the guy.

I miss.

I miss.

I miss.

 _Dang_

I only had three shots. I wasted them.

How he didn't notice the bullets whizzing past his head, I have no idea. But I back up into the room and signal everyone to continue talking. I slip behind the doorway, and wait. After about three minutes I see a shadow through the doorway. As soon as the guy enters I fling the gun at his head from point blank range, instantly knocking him out.

"Weather that was brave or stupid, I won't question it." Jeremiah comments.

"Thanks, I guess?"

"Let's get a move on." Malik says, snatching the gun from the fallen.

I sigh, "Okay."

I signal to the rest of the class to quietly walk over to the doorway. The quietly obey, slipping outside the door. I follow them, quietly speeding up to walk beside Holland.

She takes my hand, causing me to smile.

"I hope we get out of this mess."

"I do to." I answer.

We walk down a staircase into an open room. It is surprisingly empty.

"What is this room for?" I wonder. "Why have an entirely empty room? What is it for?" I ask, out loud this time.

CeCe leans against a wall, running her hands through her hair.

"This is a great place to hang out." She says sarcastically.

Jeremiah walks next to CeCe, and slumps against the wall.

"I have an idea." Jeremiah announces, "If we can get to the bomb storage, I could set a timed matter bomb, we would have a certain number of minutes to escape, but it would blow up the island. We could then find the personal aircraft bay, and take ships to our island."

"Great idea, except it would take careful planning and-"  
I'm cut off by a whirring sound. Jeremiah and CeCe leapt off the wall, startled by the sound.

A door starts opening, right where Jeremiah was standing. As the door opens we are greeted with a button.

"What the?" Malik mutters.

I reach to touch it, but Jeremiah yanks me back.

"Do you have any idea what happens if you touch it?" He yells, "Exactly, neither do I. I'd love to push that button right now, but we have no idea what it does."

"Okay, who thinks we should push it?" I ask. Seven hands shot up. "Okay, we have an agreement. Does anyone object? No, good." I say in an angry tone.

I push the button.

Everyone tenses. We all wait in anticipation, while absolutely nothing happens.

Suddenly, parts of the floor sink down. They come back up, carrying rockets. Sections of the wall slide up, revealing hundreds of explosives.


	10. Chapter 9

"I found the bomb storage." Jeremiah announces, "And those must be the infamous dark matter bombs."

He rushes over to one of the shelves in the wall, and pulls out a cube.

"How long do we need?" He asks.

This pulls me out of my shock, and I answer, "How about three hours? That seems like enough time."

He slowly fiddles with it, until it opens.

"You sure?"

"Yes." I answer.

"Okay…"

CeCe walks over and offers to help, while we stare in awe at the massive missiles.

"Here, CeCe, hold this while I get a timer." Jeremiah says, "Oh, and be sure not to drop it."

He climbs up the shelves to get a small round device and sticks it inside the cube.

"We have three hours to leave, otherwise we go 'KABOOM!'"

"Good, now to the personal aircraft bay." I say, "Jeremiah, can you track the aircrafts' trail? Maybe there is an exhaust tracker?"

"No, exhaust trackers only track where vehicles have been, not where they are. We would be able to tell if aircraft had been in certain rooms, but not an exact location, okay?"

"Dang." I mutter, "We'll play it by luck."

"Not a good idea, we should capture someone and force them to tell us where it is. Malik says. "If we brought them with us, it would be foolproof."

Jeremiah, now back on the ground, walking toward us and holding CeCe's hand said, "I like Malik's idea, guessing would take years."

We wait for the next few minutes, and close the bomb storage, with the matter bomb still inside. We waited for the next person to walk in.

We had been waiting for about twenty minutes when a guy walked in.

"Hands up!" Malik yells, "And no funny business, we don't play."

I walk over, "Tell us where the personal aircraft hangar is, and don't mislead us, you're coming too." I say to the frightened Isdoni.

"I, um…" He sighs, "Okay, fine. Follow me."

He gets up, and starts walking towards the door.

"If you lead us into a battle," I say, "we will kill you first."

He gulps, and nods. "Okay. Good to know."

We walk for about twenty minutes, through twists and turns, and finally get to the hangar. It is crowded with Isdoni, and we stay in the doorway contemplating how to do get to a spaceship.

Malik says boldly, "Me and Daniel will stay behind, and cover your escape."

"No! I mean, yeah that's noble and all, but we all need to get out of here alive." Jeremiah responds.

I say, "Malik, I you feel like that I the only way, if we must, do it. You will be remembered forever, you and Daniel will be heroes."

Malik takes a breath, "Yes, we will have to have a strategy, as we only have two pistols." He says, snatching a gun from the Isdoni, "Thanks!"

The Isdoni frowns, but says nothing.

Holland interrupts, "I see a stack of crates over in the corner, we could hide behind those, and have cover, while still being close to the ships."

"When the time to go to a ship comes, go to one of the smaller crafts. They're controls are similar to our personal crafts."

"On my count sprint to the crates." Malik says.

"One"

"Two"

"Three!"

We all run to the crates, taking the Isdoni by surprise, and making it possible to get across the room, to the crates. As we are running I notice Cassie trip, she falls, and is shot to death. We lost Cassie. Great.

Once we're behind the crates, Malik pulls something out of his pocket, and steps around the crates.

"Don't shoot! I will fire at this, if you do." He holds up a silver box. "Yeah, you know what this is."

We all are stunned, except Jeremiah.  
"Did you give that to him?" I hiss to Jeremiah.

"Yes." He hisses back.

"If I shoot this, the entire cloud will be destroyed." Malik announces, "If you do not let my friends off this island safely, everyone loses."

He signals us towards the rockets, and we obey.

"Let my fiends go safely, and I will toss this over the edge, destroying it."

We walk towards the spacecraft, and watch the scene unfold.

"Let them go, and you will have me and Daniel as your prisoners." Malik says, "And they will surely come rescue me." He glares at me.

We board different spaceships, and the direction of Jeremiah. "Get on your own ship quickly and quietly. Take off and head back to the cloud."

Malik stands in front of hundreds of guns, assuring our safety.

Joe and Cassie were the first to depart, and their spaceships were instantly shredded by a spray of bullets.

Malik glares at one of the Isdoni. "If that happens again…"

One of the Isdoni rushes up the stairs, and in a few minutes, comes back down again.

He nods.

We continue boarding the six remaining people, Jeremiah, CeCe, Holland, Juliet, Ian, and me. Soon all of us were ready.

Jeremiah signaled at his watch, ten held up five fingers.

 _Five minutes._

All of us were in position, ready for the signal.

Jeremiah raised his hand and six rockets shot into open air

All my worries were lost, flying through the clouds with an open roof felt incredible. The wind through my hair, the clouds below me, it was amazing.

Then I remembered our mission.

We all put on speed, as we realized that our lives were at stake. Malik's sacrifice would not be in vain, we would live.

We soon reached our island. We docked our vehicles, raced onto the cloud, and waited.


	11. Chapter 10

The island exploded.

We watched the cloud explode.

My vision was rimmed in red.

They had sacrificed themselves.

Malik and Daniel had died. As we watched, we realized that they had saved mankind. Their sacrifice was not in vain. It was for a noble purpose.

We all noticed a small craft shoot out from behind the explosion.

We all held our breath, hoping Malik and Daniel had made it out safely, Juliet expressed this, "Could, could it be them?"

We watched in silence as the ship swerved, but not at us. As it headed towards earth the realization hit us.

"Jeremiah, is that, is that…?" CeCe questions.

"Yes. I think. Sorry."

"You have no reason to be sorry." CeCe says, hugging him.

All of our eyes bulge. CeCe hated Jeremiah. Kind of.

CeCe quickly pulls away, blushing and mumbling, "Um, I can, uh, explain."

"Jeremiah, how much time before, you know…" I say, miming an explosion. "Is there anything we can do to stop it?"

By this time the Isdoni were gone, with their island,

"No, sorry."

We watch the black globe sail towards earth, not saying a word throughout the entire process. The missile slowly disappeared behind the earth's horizon.

We waited for the enormous sound, black clouds, and the world to be ripped apart.

It never happened. Instead we saw nothing happen. We watched for it for what might have been hours, fearing the destruction of the human race. After a vast amount of time the earth turned a sickly shade of black.

"What is that?" Ian asks quietly.

Jeremiah curses under his breath. I raise my eyebrow. Jeremiah never curses. Emphasis on _never._ "This is worse than I thought. The matter bombs, they're radioactive."

"So? We've all heard of nuclear warfare." I say.

"Yeah? Well, space is radioactive. The energy from past stars seep out into space. This causes intense radiation, which in turn would slowly kill a human. So, you see, dark matter is the substance space is made from. Now imagine all of the radiation from the entire time of the universe, in that matter. The theory that you could harvest that has never been proven. So, in theory, you could harvest an ounce of dark matter and make a bomb ten times more powerful than a nuke. This is just a guess."

"You put that all together?" CeCe says, clearly impressed and not trying to hide it, "Wow."

Jeremiah blushes slightly, and punches CeCe lightly on the arm. "Well, it came from a few magazines I read, and my lasting love of space."

CeCe backhands him, a little more forcefully, but still not enough to hurt. She laughs at Jeremiah's mock hurt.

Juliet clears her throat, "Am I interrupting something?" she asks playfully.

Jeremiah glares at her while CeCe just rolls her eyes, hugging him.

"Apparently so," I say.

Ian says, "Jeremiah, do you have something to tell us?"

We all laugh at his teasing of Jeremiah, until Jeremiah adds, "Yes." We all stop laughing immediately.

"Me and CeCe like each other." He blurts out.

"When did you figure that out?" I ask. I share a look with Ian.

"A few seconds ago, unless…" Jeremiah says, glancing at CeCe.

"No, you're right." CeCe answers, "I like you." She adds in a whisper.

Holland laughs, "Could you repeat that? Maybe a little louder?"

CeCe begrudgingly says, "I like you to."

Juliet cheers, "Finally!"

"Was it really that obvious?" Jeremiah whines, coming out of his shocked state.

"Yes!" Me and Ian both shout at the same time.

Jeremiah slowly reaches for CeCe's hand, not sure whether he could take it or not. CeCe speeds up the process, interlocking their fingers. Jeremiah seemed in heaven.

Gathering up more courage, Jeremiah steps toward CeCe smiling, "I guess this means you're my girlfriend."

"Yeah, sure." CeCe says, while still smiling, "Whatever."


End file.
